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Apple May Remove the Home Button On the Next IPad

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the death-to-the-button dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Steve Jobs is notoriously frugal when it comes to buttons so the latest rumor emanating out of Cupertino might not come as a huge surprise. Apple is reportedly planning to do away with the home button on the next-gen iPad and iPhone and replace its functionality with multitouch gestures. And as luck would have it, the newly seeded iOS 4.3 includes support for new multitouch gestures, one of which is the ability to use a four or five finger pinch to go back to the homescreen" The attached video demonstrates the new gestures for switching applications and demonstrates how you could function without the home button.

7 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. Fun for people by somersault · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Great feature for those with missing fingers!

    Okay okay so I'm just being awkward. But seriously, whenever I've used an iPad or iPhone, I've wished it had the Android "back" button. So much more convenient than hunting for application specific menus to get back to where you were.

    --
    which is totally what she said
  2. Obvious play? by emocomputerjock · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is this because you can't patent a button but can patent multitouch gestures? Get enough people speaking your "language" and other manufacturers will have to pay to use your patented gestures.

  3. What if you crash? by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not all apps are as stable as you'd like. You need something to press to exit to your home screen if your app decides it just wants to freeze...

  4. Now it's a mandatory 2 handed device? by LordKronos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Replacing the home button with multitouch gestures? So using the device will now require you to use both hands? Great! That should be fun when the people driving around me need to not only divert their attention to controlling their iphone/ipod touch, but now must take BOTH hands off the wheel to operate it.

  5. Re:Home button will stay by carou · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I do not think that Apple will remove a signature button from their iOS device lineup.

    I never thought they'd ditch the iconic "scroll wheel" which had been a signature design feature since the very first iPod...

     

  6. Re:Being serious, by TOGSolid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apple
    Accessibility

    Bhahahahahahahahahahah

  7. Re:Being serious, by Moryath · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Accessibility is being sacrificed to Steve Jobs' irrational (bordering on personality disorder) dislike of buttons.

    It's almost to the level of a phobia.

    The iPhone would be FAR better with a slide keyboard. "Touchscreens" are shit-poor interfaces for trying to type on a mini-chiclet keyboard space unless you are using a stylus; sure the iPhone pops up a "larger" image of the button you are "pressing", but I can't read it past my thumbnail anyways, so it does little good.

    I've lost count of the number of times I misdialed a number simply because I was on the "edge" of the damn touchscreen dialing interface and bumped the 4 instead of 5 or 5 instead of 6. With a real touch interface, I'd have tactile feedback and I'd know which damn button I was on.